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Military Innovation and Learning Research Group

A new UK-based group at the Uk Joint Command & Staff College, with a website and a Twitter account:

A Research Group that brings together historians, strategists and political scientists interested in understanding how militaries, past and present, learnt from experience and innovated to meet new challenges.

Counter-terrorism matters

A newly discovered blog by David Wells, who explains what it is about:

Iíve spent the best part of the last ten years working for intelligence agencies in the UK and Australia, specialising in counter-terrorism. My Top Secret clearances allowed me to witness the modus operandi of numerous terrorist groups and networks at first hand. Iíve seen how different international intelligence agencies work, and what happens when they donít. Iím no Edward Snowden. I wonít be revealing classified material or methodology, or comment on the veracity of any of his leaked material.
My blog will however be informed by my personal experience of the strategies employed by intelligence agencies, and how they interact with central government policy. I will not always agree with their approach (and have not in the past), but I understand how they have got there and why.
My aim, wherever possible, will be to use the analytical skills developed during my intelligence career to provide a balanced, apolitical and nuanced view on the War on Terror.

Moderator adds

I have today, 9th March 2016, merged in fifty-three threads which refer to blogs. I have not merged in many that debate the contents of a particular blog entry. This was prompted by a new thread by Kevin23.

Since many of the blogs date back to 2006 they may no longer be active. Some were Member Blogs, but from memory they have not posted here for a long time.

The New Strategist

Is a co-production in the UK, between the Changing Character of War Programme @ Oxford University and the UK MOD's Development, Concepts and Doctrine Centre.They explain - in part:

The journal aims to acquaint readers with excellent and innovative multi- and inter-disciplinary scholarship in strategic studies that address the pressing concerns of strategic leaders in the fields of defence and security. The journal does not present or reflect UK Ministry of Defence policy, opinions or beliefs: every article independently stands or falls on its intellectual merit.The New Strategist is interested in strategic thinking and thinking about strategy. It aims to combine cutting-edge theoretical advances in defence and security theory with recent findings in empirical and practitioner-focused research.

A guide to research on fragile states

Hat tip to WoTR for their article, which has many links and in particular commends three:

The first step in using research is simply to know what kinds of topics are being studied and by whom. There are sources to look at for “research translation” — outlets that specialize in producing high-quality research on conflict, poverty, and development and in distilling it for implementer audiences, including:

The Empirical Studies of Conflict Project (ESOC) is a consortium of professors who identify, compile, and analyze micro-level conflict data and information on insurgency, civil war, and other sources of politically motivated violence worldwide, often in collaboration with governments.

The Poverty Action Lab (J-PAL) is a network of researchers based at MIT who conduct randomized evaluations of anti-poverty programs. They also house a policy team, which produces implementer-oriented summaries of the latest research from their network.

Political Violence at a Glance is a blog run by political science professors whose stated goal is to “anticipate the questions you have about violence happening around the world and to offer you simple, straight-forward analysis before anyone else does.”

Curious CREST

CREST is a UK academic "think tank", with substantial funding from the security & intelligence agencies and only id'd yesterday. CREST explains itself:

The Centre for Research and Evidence on Security Threats (CREST) is a national hub for understanding, countering and mitigating security threats. CREST brings together the UKís foremost expertise in understanding the psychological and social drivers of the threat, the skills and technologies that enable its effective investigation, and the protective security measures that help counter the threat in the first place. It does so within a context of significant stakeholder and international researcher engagement, and with a clear plan for sustained and long-term growth.

Moral Victories Project

An Anglo-Scottish-American project, based @ Glasgow University, Moral Victories and their aim:

Our aim is to bring together scholars and military professionals to consider the ethical issues that arise in relation to how violent armed conflicts are concluded. We are particularly interested in the concept of military victory, and what it may mean in the contemporary security environment.

First, what constitutes military victory in an era when battles are no longer confined to battlefields, but are instead fought remotely and using technologies that negate the need for direct confrontation? Second, how may we recognize victory when it is achieved? That is to say, what are the markers of victory in modern war? Finally, assuming we can indeed discern victory, what rights can the winner in battle leverage by virtue of its victory? Viewed in concert, these timely questions provoke us to re-consider the overlap (and/or tension) between the ethical and strategic dimensions of conflict in the current security environment and the relation that prevails between winning wars and winning the peace.

ASPI blog

The Australian Strategic Policy Institute is effectively owned by the right wing of the left-leaning Australian Labour Party. So the ASPI blog has to accept a quota of items from would-be luminaries of socialism which sometimes descend from comment into vituperative froth. However under the sensible 2009-2016 chairmanship of a retired ALP senator, such items have been greatly outweighed by the observations and assessments of more objective commentators.

Babatim returns to Helmand, if funded by the public

See Post 201 for the full version:

Originally Posted by davidbfpo

Babatim is Tim Lynch, a former USMC officer who was in Afghanistan as a civilian "outside the wire" and had an excellent blog running till his departure in May 2012, alongside having "issues" to resolve. He has resumed blogging, which is a prelude to book writing. Hat tip to a SWC member for noticing.
Link:http://freerangeinternational.com/blog/?p=5480

The Warrant Officer: Musing of a Chairborne Soldier

Just discovered this blog by a serving British Warrant Officer, whose comments are not on 'small wars' and focus on the problems the British Army face.
Link:https://thewarrantofficer.org/

Those problems? Well this is a taster:

As I have said in my previous blogs, I believe the Army stands at a crossroads; it can either reform or die. The woes of the British Army are manifold: too little money, an enormously expensive wage and pension bill, the weight of almost four hundred years of tradition, the growth of the compliance and assurance model, and a feeling that something is going to give. The reaction to these issues, thus far, has been to adapt the stasis, to make do and mend, to do more with less. This has created an Army with a haunted look, constantly looking in its purse for loose change, trying to afford the clothes of an imperial power on the wages of a middle-manager. This desperation has also manifested itself in a culture of feral innovation, where the ambitious innovate and adapt at an ever-faster rate, their ideas crashing into one another through lack of co-ordination, in an attempt to be seen as part of the solution and not the problem. It doesn’t have to be this way, we could just choose to stop; instead of slicing the salami ever thinner, lets have ham instead. It is my earnest belief that the British Army has to urgently address three question: What is its raison d’etre? How can it best deliver its desired effect? How can it deliver at much reduced cost? The answer to those questions can only be found by wholesale and wide-ranging reform, a reformation where no subject is taboo, and nothing is ring-fenced.

A serving Warrant Officer in the British Army and shortly to become a PhD student; I hold a MA in Military History from the University of Birmingham, a RAF Chief of the Air Staff’s Fellowship, and am a Henry Probert Bursar of the RAF Historical Society. I am also a Judge on the British Army Military Book of the Year Prize and have recently devised a series of defence studies talks at Prince Consort Library in Aldershot.

The British decided to establish a patrol base in the house of Haji Gul Ehkitar (the village was named after him) and negotiated a fair rent which was paid to Haji Gul’s nephew Sur Gul, who happened to be a Taliban commander. The only Taliban mahaz commander to fight the British was Sher Muhamad’s who had been cut out of the pre-invasion deal making. Haji Gul’s Taliban did not fight but he, reportedly, used the British Army rent money to buy IED’s which he turned against his renters. Haji Kadus, who knew what Haji Gul was up to, said nothing to the Brits. When the foreigners went home Haji Kadus was not going with them so he had to make accommodations that made sense in the long game. A smart Indian doesn’t crap in his own tepee.

Talking Terror: Podcasts on iTunes & Soundcloud

Not exactly a blog, rather a collection of podcast interviews on terrorism and counter-terrorism, offered by the University of East London, the home since 2015 of the Terrorism and Extremism Research Centre (TERC).
Link:https://www.uel.ac.uk/schools/royal-...esearch-centre

The website explains:

The aim of this podcast is to provide listeners with the opportunity to hear from some of the best, and most influential, terrorism and counterterrorism researchers from around the world. Each episode will be dedicated to one individual researcher, in conversation with the TERC Director John Morrison. These conversations allow the listener to get an in-depth insight into the some of the best research on terrorism, from the researchers themselves. Within the episodes the guests discuss their own research, as well as the research by others who have influenced them. Links to those projects discussed in each episode can be found within the biographies of our guests. It is our aim that this podcast series will be worthwhile and interesting for a wide ranging audience. From students to professors, practitioners to those with a passing interest in understanding terrorism and counter-terrorism, we believe that there will be something for everyone within each episode. The list of guests below is preliminary, so be sure to check back regularly to see who else we have lined up.

Agile Warrior

Agile Warrior is a new official UK Army quarterly publication, available online via a UK NGO (so inquiry made with the publisher). OK, not really a blog, but this is the best place for this!

The official preface opens with:

Agile Warrior (AW) is the Army’s intellectual examination of current and emerging threat and opportunities for land capability. It generates an evidence base to inform the continual transformation of land forces and force structures across all lines of development.It aims to be both reflective and progressive, challenging current assumptions where necessary.

The second issue has two interesting articles, one by the Anglo-Australian academic Professor Patrick Porter - who is very challenging (copied to another relevant thread) - and the second by the NGO Remote Control Project (part of the Oxford Research Group), on the lessons from contemporary theatres 'Can We Win?'.

Perspectives on Terrorism

It can be a useful resource and you can subscribe to get notification of publication.

They explain their role:

Our free and independent scholarly online journal is a publication of the Terrorism Research Initiative (TRI) and the Institute of Security and Global Affairs (ISGA) of Leiden University's Campus The Hague. Now in its twelfth year, Perspectives on Terrorism has close to 8,000 regular subscribers and many more occasional readers and website visitors worldwide. The Articles of its six annual issues are fully peer reviewed by external referees while its Research and Policy Notes, Special Correspondence and other content are subject to internal editorial quality control.